Instead of heading down to Tucson on an Admissions trip like I had hoped, my friends and I decided to experience a taste of spring break by heading up to Flagstaff for a daytrip. These past few weeks have been rather stressful and loaded with unnecessary amounts of busywork of which I attribute to laziness and procrastination on my part. We concluded some experiments and some other projects that needed finishing. For instance, we conducted a Social Psychology experiment during which we tested the students of ERAU when they went to eat. We put four signs, two “WOMEN ENTER HERE” and “MEN ENTER HERE” on the four doors of Chartwells to see if people would comply when they entered. For the most part, men only entered through doors marked with MEN and women entered through doors that said WOMEN on them but there were a few cases of people who accidentally or deliberately disobeyed with our experiment. To the few that entered through doors of the opposite gender we marked them as being Undetermined. It was humorous but now we have to write up a report about it and its due Friday along with a Psych test. SO instead of studying for that this weekend my Psych group, Shawn Emily, Joshua and I went to Flagstaff.

The night before on Friday we attended Casino Night in the Activity Fair where some 500 people or so (I actually don’t know but exaggerating the number will help someone make an image of people packed into the Activity Center) gathered to gamble fake money for charity and in an effort to win raffle prizes. I proved that I am the King of Blackjack despite the fact that when Bobby, Aaron and I went to a casino in San Diego I merely stood there and watched everyone lose. I won up to $5252 in fake money and bought a bunch of raffle tickets although I didn’t win anything. Whatever, its not like I could’ve used a free iPad or semester of housing or even that girl bike that some freshman won. Anyway, we stayed the night at Shawn’s house and then went to Flagstaff early the next morning. We rented our boards and boots from some cheaper place and then went up to the Snowbowl to start snowboarding. I have never gone before and was nervous for it because I fully expected to fall on my butt the entire time. Well, I can say with 100% guarantee that that happened pretty much most of the time. I caught on with snowboarding pretty quickly and learned to carve and head down the mountain pretty fast with an unorthodox method of mine. I would sit down on my butt and pretty much sled down the entire way at superspeed. It ended up hurting my wrists and butt pretty bad but it was worth it. We ran quite a few of the mountain courses and then when we reached a lodge I found that a cut on my wrist was bleeding pretty badly. It turns out that during one of my spills my wrist came in front of my to protect myself and my abnormally sharp incisor tooth cut my arm. Strange yeah but not unheard of.

After that happened I resigned to staying at the lodge eating chicken strips and keeping an eye out for snowbunnies while the other three tacked the Black Diamond trail. I fell asleep waiting for them to come back (hence there were no snowbunnies around and I was disappointed in Flagstaff) and when they did they were all dead and exhausted. I had regained some energy after my little nap and therefore was ready to call it a day. It was so much fun even though I did get frustrated after falling all the time. So that was our taste of mini-vacation and it sure was great to get away from this place for a while. But now we’re back and have PT tomorrow, just one more week left!!!

What is senior year for an engineer like?  Well, it is a combination of things.

First, seniors are faced with their capstone design courses.  This course is specific to the senior’s degree and challenges them to use all of the skills they have learned throughout their four years of college, and then some.  Many times the topics covered in the senior design courses haven’t been covered in previous courses and require a great deal of research.  The capstone design courses are designed to simulate a project that you would face in industry, giving a student a taste of each of the phases of a design from research through completing team-determined integration and test plans.

Second, seniors prepare for their graduation.  For some students, graduating from their undergraduate degree program only means moving on to start the next phase of their education in graduate school.  For other students, graduating means entering industry, putting everything that they have learned to the test, and, best of all, getting that paycheck that they’ve spent the last four years working towards.  Whichever course students take, senior year means filling out lots of applications, collecting references, fine tuning resumes, and waiting. Waiting is the hardest part.  Waiting to hear if you’ve gotten your dream job. Waiting to hear if you’ve been accepted to the graduate school of your choice.

Third, senior year means keeping very busy between classes, extracurriculars, and the occasional trip to attend a conference, career fair, or on-site interview. I bought a suit the summer before my senior year and I’ve had six occasions to wear to it so far this academic year.

As far as finishing senior year, there are mixed reactions.  Embry-Riddle isn’t one of those schools where you will spend more time partying than studying.  Students who attend Embry-Riddle are very focused on their futures and work very hard for their diplomas.  That doesn’t mean you don’t have time to make friends, though – strong friendships are built throughout the four years.  It’s not hard to make friends in an environment where everyone is very focused and shares common interests in aviation and aerospace.

Graduation is both exciting and a little sad.  On the one hand, you are continuing to pursue your dreams, you look forward to having a paycheck and free time. On the other hand, your friends are moving all over the world to continue pursuing their dreams, and although you may never lose touch with them, your lives will diverge after graduation. For me, the most overwhelming emotion is excitement about moving on to the next stage and making a difference in the world through my work.

Any of you potential GSIS majors thinking about taking the Chinese language, my recommendation is… DO IT!  It is SOO much fun!  Yang Laoshi is teaching me so much.  Even though it can be pretty tough sometimes, it is so worth it.  I found out how much fun it really is knowing Chinese when Yang Laoshi and Chen Laoshi took us students on a field trip… to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix for the Chinese New Year!  (Just so you know, it’s the year of the rabbit!)  All of us students packed onto a fancy bus (that was really more like a plane, because the teachers handed out drinks for everyone!!) and headed to the valley.  We watched a movie on the way down (because there were TVs on the bus!), but the real fun started when we got off the bus.  The festival was AMAZING.  Tons of Chinese vendors were packed into the square selling everything from Buddha figurines to traditional Chinese fans to stuffed panda bears.  Just the atmosphere was amazing!  A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll let you decide for yourself!

Yang Laoshi and Chen Laoshi are so sweet!

Dragon… RAWR!  Haha.  Don’t worry guys… he didn’t eat me.

Tai Chi!  And thanks to volleyball, I know some of it!  WOOT!

These fish were on sale.  The cheapest was $20, and the most expensive was $40!

There were probably hundreds of these little vendors.

I bought a little dragon to “keep my apartment safe.”  It’s worked so far!

These guys just ran by with a huge dragon in celebration of the new year!

The food market was pretty intense, if you know what I mean.

Teri and I!  We got to catch up while wandering around the square.

Notice that the black and white rocks are formed into a Yin-Yang.  Cool huh!

So overall the whole thing was just a fantastic experience.  I found out just how awesome it is to know Chinese when I asked the vendors how much the item was… in Chinese!… and they got so excited and, well, to be honest, spoke too fast for me to understand them… but still.  It was just a really great experience to be able to see how Chinese is going to help me later in my life and in my future profession.  I am so glad that I chose to take Chinese!  There is even a Chinese track in the GSIS program for any and all interested!  But for now, 新年快乐!  Happy (Chinese) New Year!

“The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.”

-Confucius

Apparently it snowed last weekend. I didn’t see it happen.  When I left for a Students for Liberty conference in Washington DC last Friday, the weather was warm and the only snow on the ground was the hunks of ice that lurk in the shady areas of my condo neighborhood. When I returned, there was cold air and heaps upon heaps of snow. That just goes to show you what weather can be like here. And yet, as I write this, the weather has turned warm again and the sun is shining. This is good news for me. This, however, is good news for the snowmen whose spherical remains now litter the quad like the elephant graveyard from the Lion King.

In a few weeks, the weather in Arizona won’t matter however, for I shall be headed to California for Spring Break. My friends and I will be travelling the PCH looking for the perfect wave to ride. Plans of my other friends include trips to Lake Havasu in AZ, trips to Las Vegas, Various vacation locales in Mexico and day trips to Phoenix. The location of Embry-Riddle affords this all with its great location. Many of my friends back in Kansas will be making a two hour drive back home to hang out in the small town from which I hail. No sun, sand or fun. One may get homesick their freshman year, but they’ll learn to love the opportunities AZ has for them.

So I had my sim on Friday and man it was ugly. Fun but ugly. It felt like I had never flown a plane in my life. My muscle memory is off, my references, and viewing picture is all messed up, it was as if I were on a totally different planet. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. Very challenging flying from the right seat but it was a great first time in getting ready to tackle this next step. Can’t wait for the real flight now, I have a feeling that one might be a little easier.

The biggest occurrence this weekend is the fact that it snowed in Prescott….a lot. Now I’m from Denver so I have seen my fair share of snow but to snow this much in Prescott is almost unreal. It was nice having to shovel the snow, reminded me of home, but it was tiring. It was heavy, wet snow compared to the light and fluffy kind but it was great. Got a picture of my house below if you want to look at it. This was taken after I had shoveled once already. When I went to school on Monday evening, I saw a bunch on snowmen and a snow cave next to the dorms and around campus. It’s always nice to know that college students can still be kids and have a great time with each other. More snow is predicted for this weekend so we might be seeing this again soon.

My house and car covered in snow! isn't it awesome!

Last week here at Embry Riddle was one of the most srtessful weeks I have yet had. With exams, homework and a lot of studying it was not pleasant. It almost flet like finals week all over agian. Luckily Friday came by quickely and to my amazement I ended up scoring a 100% on the Physics 2 exam I was so worried about. Also I feel that I did really well on my Calculus 2 exam however will not know for sure until this coming week. It sure was a good way to start the weekend knowing I did well on my exams. Friday night our fraternity had a formal social gathering which ended up being a lot of fun and the next morning we woke up to Prescott being pounded by a snowstorm! With the snow levels down at 4,000 ft. we accumulated a couple of inches of snow just this weekend! Unfortunately most of the snow will melt soon because of the temperatures. Saturday morning after breakfast everybody was outside running around having a great time in the snow with snowball fights, building snowmen, sleding and snowboarding on the soccer feild hill, drifting in the parking lots (Off-Campus), and much more. My friends and I grabbed our snowboards and headed to the soccer feild hill where we set up a couple kickers, benches, and jibs. We had such a great time just messing around in the snow relaxing and getting our minds off of school. Sunday we ended up doing the same thing however we went to a golf course by Prescott lakes and used a fairly large hill. Afterwards we went to method coffee and hung out for a little. Since we had monday off it was a day spent studying and doing homework. This weekend was so much fun hopefully we get another snowstorm come through Prescott soon!

Just got out of my CFI first oral at ERAU! CFI is the Certified Flight Instructor rating that will allow me to teach students and get paid to fly…finally. I really like the instructor I got, he seems to know a lot of his stuff and based on what we talked about today, I kinda wish I was taught his ways when I was learning to be a private pilot. Not going to lie, he definitely fueled my passion for flying even more. That’s one great thing here at Embry-Riddle, people have similar goals and we will push each other, and support each other in achieving these. I’m really excited to get going on all my other things. What is going to be interesting is flying from the right seat. I have a feeling it’s going to be really messy. Can’t wait for my sim tomorrow.